Theatre

Facing Death 

@Fringe Festival Adelaide 

Feb - March 2009

Why do we run from things that are inevitable? Why is dying a taboo subject that makes us feel afraid?

My show explored death and dying using Elisabeth Kubler Ross’ 5 stages of grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance) as a framework. It explored these stages sensitively and could be seen by all ages. 

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It incorporated monologues, physical theatre, dance and live music, to make Facing Death a cross art-form performance that challenged and uplifted.

It would be impossible to make a script and tell everyone’s stories. Everyone has had some experience of grief and loss and I wanted everyone to go on their own journey. To do that, I decided that using dance, drama, movement and live music would give the audience ample opportunity to go on their own journey.

It gave the audience an opportunity to go on the journey on grief and use the time to perhaps connect with their own stories. Facing Death originated out of my interest in Western societies fear of mortality. From an early age I experienced grief and loss and the realisation that life could be taken at anytime and death was our inevitable fate. It became interesting to me as I got older that many people I came into contact with found the concept or discussion of death an unpleasant and taboo subject. This interested me greatly and my study of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ 5 stages of grief added to my interest. 

The stages offered an exploration of concepts that people may face in many other contexts, such as the death of a marriage, a career, even perhaps a dream. Some of the most rewarding aspects was working with such talented collaborators, actors and crew, seeing it come to life, hearing from audience members about the impact the show had on them, seeing some connect with the counsellors that were at every show and donating the proceeds of $1 from every ticket to Mary Potter hospice. A final thought was that I recently realised that this work actually had aspects of immersive theatre, which will feature more in future works. I will be linking up the video of one of the performances over the coming months, photos, media releases and interviews.